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In this beach-bound chick flick for tweenage girls, Baybridge Floridian 13-year old BFFs Hailey (Joanna 'JoJo' Levesque) and Claire (Emma Roberts) dream of being in love with and loved by lifeguard Raymond (Jake McDorman). Squeaking and squealing, Hailey and Claire plan their every move to get a glimpse of Raymond shaking his hair, stretching and flexing his muscles.

Note the face of Emma Roberts (left) in the poster art above and see if you can see another famous actress in her face. Hint: Julia.

Amidst the enamorous endeavors of Hailey and Claire is the foreboding threat of being separated, not only Hailey from Raymond but both from each other. Hailey's mom must move to Australia for her work and, being 13 years old, Hailey must go with her. Therein lies the plot "justification" for the arrogance against parental authority displayed by Hailey.

The next day, after a nighttime coastal storm ravaged the beach town community, the curb of the swimming pool deck crumbles under Claire's feet and deposits her in the debris filled and now murky pool. While submerged, Claire is startled by something moving. Loosing her breath and becoming in danger of drowning, dashing Raymond dashes to the rescue and pulls Claire out. Claire's panic-driven speech kept telling of something in the pool.

Due to the weakened status of the pool structures the owner locked it up and restricted access to it to everyone. But Claire, having convinced Hailey something was in it, decided with Hailey to sneak in later that night to see what it was.

Sure enough. There is something in the pool. A mermaid! Her name is Aquamarine (Sara Paxton). Aqua for short. It seems the storm was daddy's rage at Aqua running away to avoid being forced to marry a merman Aqua described, in one case, as a blowfish. That's the way it is down in mer-town. There is no love. Parents arrange marriages.

Aqua is certain love exists. She saw it one night long ago between two humans. Daddy gave Aqua the ultimatum to prove love exists else submit to the arranged marriage. Now, Aqua has three days to prove love exists by making someone say "I love you" to her. In three days. And Aqua must do this all between sunrise and sunset. No nocturnal antics whatsoever.

"I love you?" In three days? Talk about love at first sight. While I will not spoil the rest of the somewhat ingenious plot, I will say the writer gave an rather unusual twist at the end of what is indeed a gentle and romantic love story. Let me say that it shows that love does not not have to be physical. Even that maybe non-physical love is deeper than physical love.

Aquamarine, being a beach/mermaid film, is quite a display of human anatomy. Though very few of the cast are actual teenagers, there is much portrayal of teen skimpy dress by showing enough skin to push down the threshold of acceptability as much as possible. Though no nudity is seen, the displays include pounds of flesh being squeezed out from under the scanty postage stamp sized swimsuits.

There were enough individualized displays of scanty swim wear best described as "tease-wear" for tweenage boys (who are least equipped to handle such matters) and enough instances of attention to human anatomy (enough of the "lesser" kind" of examples) to equal the magnitude of the typically fewer but more bold examples of sexually orientated matters in some R-rated flicks. See CAP Rule of 1000 for the reasoning behind this finding.

And Aqua, when a mermaid, wore nothing under her "Lady Godiva" hair. That much -- er -- that little is obvious. Is it any wonder why our tweenage girls want more and more to wear less and less every year? Aquamarine is an example of why. Violence is not the only or even the most influential influence in modern entertainment. [Eph. 4:19]

The thread of belittling parents and parental authority, a teen's arrogance at her mother, social warfare/brutality plus a number of other issues of impudence were also enough to be equal to the magnitude of impudence in some R-rated films. [Eph. 6:2, Exod. 20:12] Also, there are two uses of the three/four letter word vocabulary, both by teens. [Prov. 22:11]

Further, this film perpetuates the use of God's name in vain which seems to be so popular, especially among the tweenage age stratum, often in the three-syllable sentence with God's name trailing it. [Deut. 5:11] All of them but two were spoken by the two tweenagers, thus emboldening other tweenagers to do likewise. Now, Luke 17:2 is invoked upon each filmmaker since "through the disobedience of the one man [a filmmaker] the many [youth] were made sinners [by, for example, the youth being emboldened by the flippant use God's name in vain to do likewise]." [Rom. 5:19] And the emboldening to use God's name in vain because of the flippant use of it in this film is just one example.

In terms of violence/crime, drugs/alcohol and murder/suicide, no such examples were noted whatsoever.

Due to the examples of impudence and the sexually oriented matters in this film it earned a score of 67. That places it at the very top of the scoring range earned by PG-13 films (55 to 67 out of 100) in the comparative baseline database of films. Aquamarine is a "hardcore" PG or an "ulta-lite" PG-13. Any way you look at it, this is another "13-PG" film.

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SCRIPTURAL APPLICATION(S)
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CHAPTER/VERSE

Eph. 4:19 Having lost all sensitivity, they [the sinful] have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. ["...continual lust for more..." There is the "...want more and more to wear less and less..." And the fault is not with our young people but with the filmmakers in this case, making 'less and less' more and more attractive and desirable, even with an appearance of acceptability. Filmmakers are experts at manufacturing emotions. That is what they do. This matter of our Lord's admonition is in the same boat with Ps. 12:8 below.]

Prov. 22:11 He who loves a pure heart and whose speech is gracious will have the king for his friend.

Rom. 5:19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, ... [The "one man" could be any of the writers/filmmakers.]

Eph. 6:2 Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise;

Exod. 20:12 Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

Deut. 5:11 Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain: for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. [Vain is shav' {shawv}: emptiness, nothingness, vanity, such as an expletive. With or without the four letter expletive, the use of God's name in any way other than respect, reverence or thoughtful discussion is in vain. That includes the popular three syllable sentence with His name trailing it AND the misuse of Jesus' name.]

***Selected Scriptures of Armour against the influence of the entertainment industry***

Ps. 12:8 The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men [e.g., create progressively vile/offensive entertainment with impunity and no consequences to younger and younger audiences every year when enough people continue to defend it, embrace it, pay for it, enjoy it, want it].

Col. 2:8 Beware lest any man [by his influence] spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

Rom. 5:19 For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Jude 1:4 For there are certain men* crept in unawares [secretly slipped in among us], who were before of old ordained to this condemnation [whose condemnation was written about long ago], ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness [a license for immorality], and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. [*men: anthropos {anth'-ro-pos}, generic, a human being, whether male or female]

Matt. 25:40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto [or for] one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto [or for] me.

Luke 17:2 It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones. [Offend: skandalizo {skan-dal-id'-zo} - scandalize; to entice to sin; to cause a person to begin to distrust and desert one whom he ought to trust and obey; to cause to fall away. I suspect "offend" includes sexually abusing the little ones. "Little ones": mikros - little;, small of age; younger which can include at-home teens].

Ps. 119:133 Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me [let no sin rule over me].

John 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.

1 Thess. 5:22 Abstain from all appearance of evil. ["Evil" includes all things that are sinful.]

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As always, it is best to refer to the Findings/Scoring section -- the heart of the CAP analysis model -- for the most complete assessment possible of this movie.

FINDINGS / SCORING:(The objective heart of the CAP Analysis Model, independent of and insulated from the Summary/Commentary section.)

Wanton Violence/Crime (W)

none noted

Impudence/Hate (I)

two uses of the three/four letter word vocabulary, both by teens

underage knowledge of a restricted film contents

teen arrogance/disrespect at mother, repeatedly

sneaking to gain unauthorized entry

rude gaze

social warfare/brutality, repeatedly

constant thread of belittling parents/parental authority

disrespect of official's authority

Sexual Immorality (S)

beach scene with sun bathers in scant swim wear

swim wear exposing private some flesh

excessive exposure of a young girl, repeatedly

hair only partially hiding bare breasts, repeatedly

attention to human anatomy, repeatedly

camera angle to force viewer on private parts, repeatedly

exposure of below navel skin, threatening to expose that which follows, repeatedly

homosexual humor

nude woman in bathtub

excessive cleavage, repeatedly

Drugs/Alcohol (D):

none noted

Offense to God (O)

14 uses of God's name in vain without the four letter expletive, all but two by a teen

prayer to false gods to manipulate mother and her life for selfish gain

There are some in the entertainment industry who maintain that 1) violent programming is harmless because no studies exist that prove a connection between violent entertainment and aggressive behavior in children, and 2) young people know that television, movies, and video games are simply fantasy. Unfortunately, they are wrong on both accounts." And "Viewing violence may lead to real life violence." I applaud these associations for fortifying 1 Cor. 15:33. Read the rest of the story. From our more than eight years of study, I contend that other aberrant behaviors, attitudes, and expressions can be inserted in place of "violence" in that statement. Our Director - Child Psychology Support, a licensed psychologist and certified school psychologist concurs. For example, "Viewing arrogance against fair authority may lead to your kids defying you in real life." Or "Viewing sex may lead to sex in real life." Likewise and especially with impudence, hate and foul language. I further contend that any positive behavior can be inserted in place of "violence" with the same chance or likelihood of being a behavior template for the observer; of being incorporated into the behavior mechanics and/or coping skills of the observer. In choosing your entertainment, please consider carefully the "rest of the story" and our findings.

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